


Overboard

by sunalso



Series: Hidden Treasure [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Happy Ending, Mermaid and pirate au, Oral Sex, mermaid Jemma Simmons, pirate Leo Fitz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 18:54:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17473085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunalso/pseuds/sunalso
Summary: AU. Fitz is in the water again. Where’s a mermaid or a pirate captain when you need one?beta'd by Gort





	Overboard

_A/N: This is part three of three, you'll want to read the first two (First Mate and Sunk) to know what's going on!_

****

Water, water, and—Fitz paddled so he and the cask he was clinging to were facing the other direction—more water.

Shite.

He’d ended up in the drink two days in a row. At least the first time he’d had company, now it was just him, waves, and sky. He’d been up in the Mockingbird’s rigging, scrambling to pull in sails, when a cry had gone up. It was the French ship, Hunter’s information had been right on that account, but drastically wrong on what kind of ship it was. The vessel hadn’t been a merchant ship waiting to be plucked, but a first rank ship of the line with more than a hundred guns on board.

The Mockingbird had come about hard, rolling sharply to starboard and throwing Fitz from his perch. Mack had tossed him the cask and promised to be back for him once it was clear the French ship wasn’t following the Mockingbird.

Fitz didn’t have much hope, and as the sun sank towards the horizon, what had remained fled. He’d die alone, never seeing Jemma again, and she’d believe he’d abandoned her. It was the last part that hurt. That the woman who owned his heart would think he’d sailed off and forgotten her.

He watched the stars come out, but couldn’t bring himself to wish on any of them for a rescue that probably wasn’t coming. God’s blood, but Hunter might even be glad to be rid of him after what’d happened to the Barbarella, which technically hadn’t been Fitz’s fault. It wasn’t like he’d asked for a band of angry mermaids to rip it apart.

Honestly, he didn’t even know how Hunter was still alive. The Mockingbird’s captain—who was very tall and more than a little scary—by all rights should have tossed Hunter overboard once she’d discovered he was a fellow pirate captain, but instead, she and Hunter were making eyes at each other.

Oh.

Fitz sighed as he realized what Hunter had most likely been up to while Fitz and the rest of the crew had been crammed down in the Mockingbird’s hold.

Well, good on Hunter, he supposed.

Fitz dozed on and off, draped over the cask, and slipped between dreams and memories of the much more enjoyable times in the ocean with Jemma.

Until something brushed his foot.

He screamed. It was probably a bloody big shark, and he was going to be eaten alive. He kicked his legs, flailing, though he knew it was useless.

A hand grabbed his ankle, and he screamed again.

The souls of the drowned and damned were coming for him. He tried to yank away. The hand let go, and a head broke the surface.

“Fitz, stop, it’s just me,” said the most beautiful voice in the world.

He went completely still. “Jemma?”

She was floating upright beside him, looking quite cross. “Why are you in the water?” she snapped. “Where’s the ship you were on?”

Her being angry at him was what let him know she was there, because if she’d been a dream, she wouldn’t be nearly as upset.

“The Barbarella sank—”

“I know that part, that’s why I’m here, to make sure you’re okay after my sisters took it upon themselves to punish you for daring to touch me.”

“Ah.”

“Anyway, I found that wreck, but as there was a lack of bodies, I assumed another vessel had picked you up. It was a bother tracking it, and I almost didn’t, but if I hadn’t then I wouldn’t have found you.” She was scowling.

“Be angry later, please?”

She huffed. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“The ship had to turn. I was up with the sails and got thrown in. They’re coming back for me if the French navy hasn’t blasted them to splinters.” He tried smiling. “I missed you. Every second of every minute of every hour.”

Jemma’s scowl faded, and she launched herself at him, covering his face with kisses. He cupped her cheek, gazing into her eyes. “I missed you too, you ridiculous man,” she whispered as her tail snaked around his legs. “Have you found a place for us yet? I don’t want to leave your side ever again. Especially not when you seem to attract so much trouble.”

Being held by her meant that he didn’t have to swim or grip so tightly to the cask, though he kept an arm over it, not wanting to lose it. “Not enough time yet, and not enough money. The cargo I was watching on the island was sunk with the Barbarella, and now the French partridge we were planning to pluck turned out to be a falcon.”

“Money?”

“It’s used by humans to procure things. Often it’s made out of gold, silver, or other metal.”

“And that’s what pirates want?” Her brow was furrowed.

“Pirates and all humans. Pirates just—”

“Take what isn’t theirs.”

“Ah…yes. That’s one way of looking at it.”

Her tail twitched. “There’s another?”

“Suppose not.”

“What if the gold is lost? Who does it belong to then?” She ran her hand over his soaked shirt, and he took it, bring her fingers to his lips to kiss.

“Nobody, I think, or whoever finds it.”

She shuddered slightly, and he sucked her middle finger into his mouth to run his tongue around. “How much would it take to buy a home?”

Fitz smiled at her. “Don’t worry, the Mockingbird will find me, and there’ll be another ship, another cargo. I promise I’ll make enough for us to be together.”

Jemma looked thoughtful, then leaned forward to peck his lips. “Wait here, I won’t be too long.”

“Where else would I be?” he said, but she’d already disappeared beneath the surface. Fitz heaved a sigh. “Don’t worry. I’ll just cling to this cask and let the current do its thing. Not that I have much of a choice. If I get eaten by a shark, I’m blaming you.”

****

Jemma dove, moving fast as she sought the other mermaids that had been traveling with her. Not all her sisters had been disgusted that she’d fallen in love with a human, and two had agreed to help her find him.

The pod of dolphins that’d clued her in to where Fitz had ended up were patrolling for anything dangerous, and she was comfortable briefly leaving him.

She found Elena and Daisy playing with an octopus, getting it to change color according to their fins.

“Did you find your man?” Daisy asked.

Jemma nodded. “I did.”

“Then why are you here?” Elena had a knowing smile while Daisy giggled. The octopus was clinging to her, turning a dark blue that looked almost black in the moonlight.

“I’ll go back shortly, to wait with him for his ship’s return, but I was wondering if you would be willing to help me again.”

“Of course,” Daisy said.

Jemma quickly explained what she needed, and her sisters readily agreed, swimming off and leaving the poor octopus clinging to its rocky home. “Sorry, but I can’t stay and play,” Jemma told it, and it glared at her before scuttling off. She stuck her tongue out at it and headed back towards Fitz, already missing his warm hands and handsome features.

She found him easily, the currents being predictable in that part of the ocean.

“Jemma,” he breathed, reaching for her. She wrapped herself around him again, making it easier for them to talk.

She ran her fingers over his face, delighting in the scratchy feel of his beard. “I love you,” she said, and Fitz bowed his head to kiss her.

“I love you too, Jemma. You shine brighter than all the stars.”

Her heart flipped as his lips met hers. His hand trailed down her back, then around to knead her breast. She moaned, kissing Fitz harder. The rough pads of his fingers felt delicious on her, especially when he rolled and plucked her nipple. Her ventral fins unfurled, and she undulated slowly as her fins rippled against the front of his trousers.

Fitz groaned, and his hips bucked. “Jemma,” he said, breaking the kiss. “Let me pleasure you with my hand. I’m afraid if I do it with my body, I’ll lose the cask.”

“Alright,” she agreed reluctantly, wondering what was in the cask that he needed it. She could keep him on the surface for days.

“Thank you.” His hand dipped below the water, seeking out her ventral fins and stroking them in the way she liked. “I can’t tell you how much I missed you. How every morning my heart would break when I rose because I wouldn’t be seeing you.”

Jemma gasped at his touch and flicked the end of her tail. It hadn’t been that long since they’d parted, but she understood, completely. “Every day lasted a century without you in it,” she murmured as bliss wrapped around her like a strand of seaweed.

“Yes. Longer.” He kissed her again, his tongue and lips tasting of the ocean. He could have died out here. Men were not made to spend so long in water. Jemma clutched his shirt as her ventral fins curled about his hand. She could not lose him.

“Jemma?” Fitz asked. She was crying, and he kissed a tear from her cheek. “I’m here, Jems, I’m here." Like always, he somehow knew what she was thinking. She pressed her face to his throat and wrapped her tail more securely around his legs.

His fingers stroked her, not teasing, but working determinedly to make her feel good. Her tears disappeared as her pleasure grew. “Oh, Fitz. My heart.” A wave of bliss washed through her, and her tail shuddered, propelling her and Fitz upward, sending them higher out of the water for a second. Fitz laughed, then clutched the cask tighter.

“Better?” he whispered, nipping at her ear.

She hummed her satisfaction as her ventral fins settled against her body. Fitz’s male part was still pressing against her body, and as his hand caressed her back, she tried to think of a way to pleasure him. Mermaids would use their mouth and tongues on each other’s ventral fins for enjoyment, but she’d never asked Fitz to do so with his male-part because she thought it might embarrass him if he had to explain that humans did not. But his cock would fit in her mouth, or at least some of it would, and she could mimic the action he made with his body with her head and shoulders. It should work.

“I have an idea,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“You hold on to the cask, and I’ll use my mouth to pleasure you.”

Fitz leaned back. “Jemma, I would never ask such a—”

“You didn’t ask, I offered.”

“But—”

“Is this a politeness thing? Is there something else we must do besides love each other before I can kiss you there? Humans have very strange rules.”

Fitz’s mouth twisted to the side. “Well, no…I just…don’t want you to do something you don’t want to.”

“I offered, it means I want to.”

Fitz looked like he was trying to come up with another argument, so she touched him through his trousers, sliding her fingers along his shift. His hips jerked, and he moaned. “I think you want me to,” she said in victory.

“Fine. Aye, I do.”

Jemma kissed his lips, then shimmed down his body and under the water, her gills opening as her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light. She stroked him a few more times, then undid his laces, pushing his trousers down just far enough she could free his cock. Her hand went about it, and she felt proud that she could affect him so greatly.

His cock intrigued her, and she thought it rather pretty, if somewhat aggressive in its rigidity. It was so unlike anything on her or her sister’s bodies. Jemma stroked him a few times before licking him from bottom to top, then back down again. She pressed a few kisses to the vulnerable part below his cock, and he moaned. She feathered it with tiny licks of her tongue before returning her attention to his shaft.

“Jemma?” Fitz said. “Jemma!”

She rose up to break the surface. “What? Are you alright?”

“You’ve been under the water for a long time.”

She stared at him, then fluttered open her gills briefly. “Mermaid.”

He made a face. “Ah, yes, um don’t rightly know what I was thinking.”

She rolled her eyes and sank back down to what she’d been doing. She loved Fitz’s quick mind, but it seemed to disappear when he was being pleasured. Was that a trait all men shared?

The head of his cock enticed her, and she sucked the entire thing into her mouth. Fitz moaned and his body arched. Jemma flicked her tail up to support him better as she darted her tongue over his male-part. She explored the shape and wiggled her tongue into the slit at the end, which made Fitz shudder. His hand sunk into her hair, holding on but not tightly. The strands were floating around her head, the current stretching them out to sway around Fitz’s waist.

Slowly, she worked more of his shaft into her mouth as her hand moved from his waist to curl around his rear. The muscles flexed, and she wiggled in enjoyment. That part of his body intrigued her since it was something she did not have, and she thought it looked rather nice. When she’d told him that, Fitz had turned red and stammered out a thank you.

Careful to not brush her teeth against his shaft, Jemma began to move her upper body in a rolling motion, bobbing her head back and forth in a rough approximation of how he moved during pleasure.

Fitz’s hand on her head trembled. “Like that, I can’t believe…just like that.” His words were muffled under the water, but they reassured her she was doing this correctly.

It pleased her far more than she thought it would. He must trust her a great deal to put such a sensitive part of himself in her mouth, and she simply loved his cries of enjoyment. She loved him.  

With her gills, she didn’t need to stop sucking, but she varied her administrations, switching between sucking him deep into her mouth and bobbing her head, and kissing and laving his shaft. When his muscles tensed and his hips jerked, she knew he would find his pleasure soon.

His hand patted her head. “Jemma! Uh, Jemma I’m—”

She swished her tail to splash him, and he spluttered, then arched and cried out as his cock pulsed in her mouth. She swallowed his release down, the musky and salty flavor as wonderful as she remembered.

He relaxed, and she rose above the surface again, unable to stop herself from grinning.

Fitz looked dazed.

“Did you like it?” she asked.

“Yes, um, though, though…”

“What? If I did something wrong, please tell me so I know not to do it again.”

“Nothing’s wrong.” He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “I just, you don’t…at the end, you don’t have to swallow.”

“Why ever not? I liked that part the most. I always feel treasured when you give some of the ocean you carry to me. And I like the taste.”

“Yes, well, alright then. Can’t exactly complain.”

“I should think not.”

A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “We’re waiting for my ship now?” he asked.

“I think so, though if it does not show soon, I’ll swim with you towards land, but it’s far.” Maybe too far. Jemma hoped his crew had not abandoned him.

Fitz looked at the horizon, then up at the stars. “Since we’re here for the time being, have I told you about horses?”

“Only that humans ride on their backs.”

“That’s right, but let me tell you more. Imagine a dolphin, but with four legs.”

“That sounds terrifying.”

“They can be. I’ve been bitten more than once.”

Four-legged dolphins that you could sit on and were mean? She had to know more.

****

Fitz was woken from a not very sound sleep by Jemma shaking him. He was hanging over the cask with Jemma’s tail around his legs and his head on her shoulder. He yawned.

“A vessel’s coming,” she said, and Fitz glanced around. There was nothing but sea wherever he looked, the sun not far above the horizon and the sky a brilliant blue.

“There is?”

“I can feel it, in the water. Can’t you?”

“Not at all.”

She frowned at him and shook her head, then pointed towards the horizon. “It’s there.”

It wasn’t long before sails crested the horizon, followed by the rest of the ship. Fitz crowed. “It’s the Mockingbird!” Jemma laughed and let him go to dance and spin in the waves. She was a glorious sight, her copper scales glinting in the light.

As the ship grew closer, Jemma swam back, sinking low as if to hide.

“Do you want to leave?” he asked.

“No, look what happened last time you were without me.”

He ran a finger over her cheek and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Odds are that won’t happen again.”

“Still not leaving.”

“And what about when I go aboard?”

“I haven’t figured that part out yet.”

He nodded and pulled her close as the ship furled in its sails. It was barely moving by the time it reached them.

“Hullo, Fitz!” Hunter yelled, leaning over the side. “You alive?”

“No thanks to you!” Fitz hollered back.

Hunter’s jaw dropped. “Is that a mermaid?”

Other members of the Mockingbird’s and Barbarella’s crew leaned over the railing.

“Uh, yes.”

“Is it your mermaid?” Hunter said.

Fitz sighed. “Of course it is. I’m not out here cuddling with random mermaids.” Leaning in close, he spoke in Jemma’s ear. “That’s my captain.” She eyed Hunter.

Hunter made a face. “I was just asking.”

The Mockingbird’s captain leaned over the rail beside Hunter. “Hello,” she said, looking at Jemma. “I’m Bobbi.”

Jemma’s smile was sunny. “Jemma. I did not know there were any women captains.”

“There’s not many,” Bobbi said, looking pleased. “Thank you for helping Fitz.”

“It’s no trouble, and we had a nice night alone to share pl—”

Fitz put his hand over her mouth. “I was very glad to see her.”

Hunter was fighting back laughter. “Fitz, only you would get tossed overboard and end up sharing anything with a pretty lady.” Hunter jerked forward and had to grab the rail to keep from tumbling into the brine. Bobbi was glaring at him. “You’re a brilliant ray of sunshine,” he said to her. “With a hell of a punch.”

“I’m sorry about your boat,” Jemma called.

“The Barbarella was more than a boat,” he shouted down, then pitched forward again. “Fine. Apology accepted.”

Fitz smiled at Jemma. “That was nice of you.”

Jemma’s head swiveled, looking away from the Mockingbird. “I’m hoping I can do more than be nice. I would like a house with you soon so I never have to worry about you wandering off and getting hurt.”

Fitz grimaced. That wasn’t quite fair. He hadn’t intended to be stranded in the ocean. Jemma bobbed higher in the water and waved a hand. He gasped, and there was a murmur from the ship, and two more mermaids rose above the wave.

“Ah, Jemma…” Hunter said.

“They’re my friends,” Jemma said. “I asked them to help me. Fitz said we would need money for a home. And that gold was money. And I knew where there was gold.”

“What?” Fitz asked. “Where?”

Jemma was beaming. “There are so many, many vessels on the floor of the ocean. They’re fun to explore.” She made a face. “Though the books are always ruined.” The end of her tail swished. “I asked Daisy and Elena to get some of the gold for us.” The two other mermaids lifted tightly woven nets that clinked out of the water.

“There’s much more where this came from!” one said.

“What’s your name?” Trip called down to the mermaid, who had dark hair with some kind of purple seaweed woven into it.

She giggled. “I’m Daisy.”

“And you?” Mack called, pointing to the other, whose hair was elaborately braided.

She tilted her head, considering. “I’m Elena.”

There was a splash, and Fitz sighed, watching Trip swim over to Daisy.

“I think we might have started a trend,” Jemma whispered in Fitz’s ear.

A rope was thrown over, and the two sacks of gold were hauled up, then a ladder was lowered for Fitz and Trip.

He looked at the ladder. “Jemma, I’m hungry, thirsty, and tired. I need to go.”

“I don’t want you to leave.” Jemma stroked his face. “But I understand.”

There was a screech from the deck. Hunter reappeared. “Fitz, this is Spanish gold bullion. A lot of it.” He looked giddy.

“Can it buy a home?” Jemma asked.

“It could buy a castle.”

“We don’t need a castle,” Fitz said. “A little cottage on the water will be enough.”

“Will it buy you a new boat?” Jemma asked Hunter.

“It would, but I think I might not need one.” His head disappeared.

Jemma looked questioningly at Fitz. “I think he’s in love with the Mockingbird’s captain.” She nodded. “What will you do now?” Fitz asked as he stroked her shoulder. 

“I don’t know. I suppose follow behind the ship as best I can.”

“You’ll exhaust yourself. Jemma—”

“Is there a problem?” Bobbi said, looking down at him and Jemma. Trip was already back on board, and the other mermaids had sunk below the waves.

“Jemma doesn’t want to leave, she’s talking about following the ship, but I don’t think…Jemma, it’ll be too much.”

Her lips were trembling.

“Jemma, you need to be in water, correct?” Bobbi asked.

“Yes.”

“What about a large tub?”

Fitz’s heart soared.

Jemma’s tail flicked, and she radiated joy. “I believe that will do very well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! We had the best time writing this au! You can find us at [ @sunalsolove ](https://sunalsolove.tumblr.com) and [ @robotgort ](https://robotgort.tumblr.com)
> 
> Comments long or short are welcomed!


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